Story Makers Show

It was an honor and a joy to sit down (virtually) with Jabari Asim and talk about just how a man with five children and a big deal job manages to be so productive across so many genres. Hint: write in your head when you can’t sit down; write on trains, write by hand, start in the middle, and marshall what you might consider a “not great attention span” into a tremendous breadth of work--fiction, non-fiction, plays, poetry, children’s books and journalism, with a past stint in screenwriting. He advocated a “noncommittal investigation” as a useful approach to writing about potentially explosive topics, and talked about the “counter-narrative work” that a lot of writers of color, women, gay writers, etc. do, how to break from the master narrative and the ways it’s about power, not race. Other rich threads of conversation include: the three readers he keeps in mind as he’s writing, listening to your characters and developing them, using omniscience and cinematic techniques in the novel, plot, the separation of politics and art, theme, visualizing your published book, and balancing humility and editing. He had great advice as an editor for those submitting to magazines and journals, and more great advice on writing children’s books. This is an episode not to miss!

Links:

W.E.B. Dubois

Jim Harrison

Jim Harrison in Esquire

Toni Morrison

Edward Jones

Joyce Carol Oates

Leon Forrest

Richard Wright

Richard Wright Haiku

Marsha Hayles - Breathing Room

Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

Henry Dumas

JABARI ASIM is an associate professor at Emerson College, where he directs the MFA program in creative writing. He is also the Executive Editor of The Crisis magazine, a preeminent journal of politics, ideas and culture published by the NAACP and founded by W.E.B. Du Bois in 1910. He is the author of 12 books, including The N Word: Who Can Say It, Who Shouldn’t, And Why, What Obama Means: For Our Culture, Our Politics, Our Future, A Taste Of Honey: Stories and Only The Strong, a novel. His books for children include Whose Toes Are Those?, Fifty Cents And A Dream, and Preaching To The Chickens, forthcoming in October.

His reviews, essays and cultural criticism have been published in The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The Los Angeles Times, The Village Voice, the Boston Globe, Publishers Weekly, The Washington Post and Essence Magazine, among others.

His honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship for Creative Arts, the Carter G. Woodson Award from the National Council for the Social Studies, a Jefferson Cup Honor from the Virginia Library Association, and two NAACP Image Award nominations.

• Facebook
• Twitter

Story Makers is a podcast that features in-depth conversations with accomplished writers, filmmakers and industry experts about story craft, technique, habit and survival--everything you need to know to stay inspired, connect to your creativity, find others’ wonderful stories and your own success.

The hosts:

Elizabeth Stark is a published, agented novelist and distributed filmmaker who teaches and mentors writers at BookWritingWorld.com.

Angie Powers is a distributed filmmaker and published short story writer with an MFA in creative writing and a certificate in screenwriting from UCLA who teaches story structure at BookWritingWorld.com.

Best-selling author of three novels and two story collections, Ann Packer sat down with us to talk about writing for herself on her own schedule, about two different kinds of revision, about having a sense of the emotional shape of a book before she begins. We discussed the differences between a novel and a collection of short stories, even when the stories are linked, and about the process of organizing a collection. We got into what fuels your stories, and the distinction between story and plot, the importance of writing freely in a first draft, the timing for readers and what they can offer the writer and the creative process--and what they can’t. We talked about what she knows before she starts, and what she discovers on the way. Other topics include point of view, self-confidence, publishing, luck, reader revelations v. character revelations, and fear of flying (the actual thing, not Erica Jong’s book).

Links Discussed:

SFO's Fear of Flying Clinic

Alice Munro

Book Writing World Classes

Author

Ann Packer was born in Stanford, California, in 1959, and grew up near Stanford University, where her parents were professors. She attended Yale University and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and has received fellowships from the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing, the Michener-Copernicus Society, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

She is the acclaimed author of two collections of short fiction, Swim Back to Me and Mendocino and Other Stories, and three bestselling novels, The Children’s Crusade, Songs Without Words and The Dive from Clausen’s Pier, which received the Kate Chopin Literary Award, among many other prizes and honors. Her short fiction has appeared in The New Yorker and in the O. Henry Prize Stories anthologies, and her novels have been published around the world.

Ann returned to her native Bay Area in 1995. She lives in San Carlos with her family.

Story Makers is a podcast that features in-depth conversations with accomplished writers, filmmakers and industry experts about story craft, technique, habit and survival--everything you need to know to stay inspired, connect to your creativity, find others’ wonderful stories and your own success.

The hosts:

Elizabeth Stark is a published, agented novelist and distributed filmmaker who teaches and mentors writers at BookWritingWorld.com.

Angie Powers is a distributed filmmaker and published short story writer with an MFA in creative writing and a certificate in screenwriting from UCLA who teaches story structure at BookWritingWorld.com.

Adam Wolpert is a painter who blogs beautifully about the creative process, and our conversation began by looking at the moment when you're shifting out of a big a long extended project and finding the next one--something writers certainly face as well. This led into an exploration of the powers of creative constraints, of setting limits on your projects--and the unexpected and deep freedom that produces. Come Out of Your Artist’s Closet! We talked about the kind of breakout work you might hold yourself back from doing because it doesn’t fit your “brand” or the vision the world has of the work you do. We talked about nature and culture, self and connection, and fame: desire for immortality or a backstage pass?  We dug into setting--the use of landscape in painting and in storytelling and the ways that what settings gives us is the observer rather than or as much as the observed. We talked about the art world, diversity and intimidation, and the dangers of comparing yourself to “the masters.” We discussed metrics for judging when the work is done, and ways to look at the work that give you distance and perspective on it. And we talked about the process of writing a blog that captures the authentic process of creativity.

Links Discussed:

 Esalen

Adamwolpert.com

India, by Stanley Wolpert: http://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520260320

A New History of India, by Stanley Wolpert: http://www.amazon.com/New-History-India-Stanley-Wolpert/dp/0195337565/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1464908114&sr=1-3&keywords=stanley+wolpert

All Stanley Wolpert books in print:

Fear of Flying Course at SFO

Link to SF MOMA: 

Jeff Koons Michael Jackson balloon art: 

The Bonnard  show at the Legion of Honor: 

His varied imagery explores the themes of cycles, relationships and balance, and investigates the subtle distinction between the representational and the abstract. His earlier naturalistic outdoor work speaks of his relationship with the land, in particular his home in West Sonoma County at the Occidental Arts and Ecology Center (OAEC).

A passionate artist from an early age, Wolpert explored the media of performance, ceramics, sculpture, and collage before turning seriously to painting while earning his BFA from the University of California Santa Barbara. After a rigorous 2-year training in classical realism at Studio Cecil-Graves in Florence, Italy, where he immersed himself in the work of the great European masters, Wolpert completed an MFA at UC San Diego. He has had major gallery representation since 1988, including many solo exhibitions and group shows and 18 years with the Jan Baum Gallery in Los Angeles. Wolpert co-founded the Occidental Arts and Ecology Center in 1994 and has taught and lectured extensively throughout California.

Story Makers is a podcast that features in-depth conversations with accomplished writers, filmmakers and industry experts about story craft, technique, habit and survival--everything you need to know to stay inspired, connect to your creativity, find others’ wonderful stories and your own success.

The hosts:

Elizabeth Stark is a published, agented novelist and distributed filmmaker who teaches and mentors writers at BookWritingWorld.com.

Angie Powers is a distributed filmmaker and published short story writer with an MFA in creative writing and a certificate in screenwriting from UCLA who teaches story structure at BookWritingWorld.com.

Heather Haggerty and Nanou Matteson are a superteam of film producers who brought us the recent award-winning comedy starring Rita Moreno and previous Story Makers podcast guest Steve Goldbloom. Their film East Side Sushi has also had remarkable success. We dig into the creative side of marketing your art and its connection to your values, about when and how to consider your audience, about keeping your budget small and your quality high. We talked about creating a fictional world and about the importance of the look of a film in conveying story. They discussed the mistake of writing off an elderly character or assuming a character has to be the race, gender or sexual identity they start of being in a script. We got into subtext, and when being “on the nose” can be useful, the pleasures and practice of collaboration, the structure for an outline or story templates, and their uses and shortcomings, and the importance of transformation.

Links:

Save The Cat

Film Specific, Stacey Parks

Steve Goldbloom

Anthony Lucero

Saudi Arabian film, Wadjda

The film, Brooklyn

The Lives of Others

Lindsay Doran's Three Rules

Mira Nair director of Monsoon Wedding Masala

Mike Mills film, Beginners

Cocktail, Jean Cocteau

Pixar Storytelling Template:

Once upon a time there was ___.

Every day, ___.

One day ___.

Because of that, ___.

Because of that, ___.

Until finally ___.

Story Makers is a podcast that features in-depth conversations with accomplished writers, filmmakers and industry experts about story craft, technique, habit and survival--everything you need to know to stay inspired, connect to your creativity, find others’ wonderful stories and your own success.

The hosts:

Elizabeth Stark is a published, agented novelist and distributed filmmaker who teaches and mentors writers at BookWritingWorld.com.

Angie Powers is a distributed filmmaker and published short story writer with an MFA in creative writing and a certificate in screenwriting from UCLA who teaches story structure at BookWritingWorld.com.

We had a lively and important conversation with author, publisher and literary curator Peg Alford Pursell, about the publishing landscape and how writers can successfully interact with it. Peg, who runs the popular reading series Why There Are Words, is launching an independent press with the same name. Starting with craft, we discussed forming a collection of stories as and after individual stories are produced, finding echoes, juxtapositions and correspondences between stories, and seeing new correspondences "that I had not imagined." We talked about the way that the objects in the story carry emotional weight, tone, and do a lot of characterization. We also dug into what readers bring to a book, the fine line between mystery or intuition and intention in shaping your story, and the way that embracing the possibility the impossibility of objectivity allows her to release the work out into the world. She also probed the troubled area of letting go of your work--when and how to release it to the world, with a detailed look at the process of revision. Then we get her to switch hats and talk about the same issues from the point of view of the editor as she prepares to watch her own imprint and in her long history of curating the acclaimed reading series Why There are Words. Peg pointed out that profit and loss sheets are driving corporate publishing, and Angie drew parallels to the Hollywood studio system and its shortcomings. We talk very concretely about the amount of work it takes to get a manuscript ready to go out into the world, and how to know when you're merely saturated, and when you're actually done. Given the current playing field, should new authors shift their strategies for getting published? We got advice as well on starting a reading series, the pleasures and pitfalls, about publicists, publicity and self-promotion for authors (what you need to know), and then, circling back to writing, we touched on the art of compression and sensing the ending, since Peg writes some very short flash fiction.  WTAW Press will be opening for book-length prose submissions June 15, 2016. "I want those voices that need to be heard. Please let people know that." -- Peg Alford Pursell

Links:

Ariel: The Restored Edition, a Facsimile of Plath's Manuscript, Reinstating Her Original Selection and Arrangement

 Margaret the First published by Catapult Press

Dorothy A Publishing Project

Michael Ondaatje

Why There Are Words reading series

WTAW Press

Graywolf editor interview on Literary Hub

The Rumpus essay Elizabeth cited

The Sun essay Elizabeth cited

http://www.wtawpress.org/

https://www.facebook.com/wtawpress/?fref=ts

https://whytherearewords.com/

https://www.facebook.com/WhyThereAreWords/?fref=ts

http://www.pegalfordpursell.com/

Peg Alford Pursell is a writer, editor, teacher, literary community builder, and all-around good egg. She's the author of the forthcoming SHOW HER A FLOWER, A BIRD, A SHADOW (ELJ Editions, March 2017).

Her stories have been published in or are forthcoming from VOLT, Soundings Review, RHINO, Permafrost, Eleven Eleven, Tupelo Quarterly, The Los Angeles Review, The Quotable, Joyland, Staccato Fiction, Emprise Review, Annalemma, The Fabulist, Sugar Mule, Blotterature, Her Royal Majesty, Pure Francis, and others.

Two of her stories were performed at Stories on Stage in Sacramento. Her 90-word, one-sentence story "Fragmentation" is the title story of Fragmentation and Other Stories (Burrow Press, 2011). Her 990-word story "Project," published inAnnalemma Magazine, was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She evidently has an affinity for stories with word counts that are multiples of nine.

She lives in Northern California and curates the literary series Why There Are Words, held monthly in Sausalito. She is the founding editor of WTAW Press, an independent publisher of literary books. Peg also founded North Bay Writers Workshops. She works as a freelance editor and writing coach.

She earned her MFA in Creative Writing from the Warren Wilson MFA Program for Writers.

Story Makers is a podcast that features in-depth conversations with accomplished writers, filmmakers and industry experts about story craft, technique, habit and survival--everything you need to know to stay inspired, connect to your creativity, find others’ wonderful stories and your own success.

The hosts:

Elizabeth Stark is a published, agented novelist and distributed filmmaker who teaches and mentors writers at BookWritingWorld.com.

Angie Powers is a distributed filmmaker and published short story writer with an MFA in creative writing and a certificate in screenwriting from UCLA who teaches story structure at BookWritingWorld.com.

My conversation with Angie Powers, co-host of Story Makers Show, began with the process and pleasure of telling yourself a story. We discussed what she did and did not get from her MFA program, including an understanding of structure and revision, which led us into the art of revision and the relationship between revision and planning or structure. There is a balance between finding the story as you go and outlining the story for yourself. We talked about finding that balance even within the process of outlining. Also discussed: the secret to writing and where not to look for it, the art of simplifying, the benefits of small, concrete work goals, specificity and subtext, and the questions, large and small, that  keep your reader interested from one story turn to the next. Angie lays out a seven-step structure for story in a quick overview and explains why the seven steps are not a formula and what made Angie overcome her resistance and embrace them as a tool that helps her tell stories.

Links:

The Art of Fiction

Middlesex

Jesus' Son

Citizen

Royal Institute of Magic Series

The Da Vinci Code

HBO TV Series Girls by Lena Dunham

Angie Powers

Book Writing World

Where to begin? The story starts a long, long time ago, back when the first Dot Com bubble was building, and I had just graduated from college with one of the two least lucrative degrees one can get – History.

Armed with witty banter and a desire to live in San Francisco I promptly found a job at a gay home rental agency during one of the worst housing crunches in SF history. And while $11/hour was a step up from the fat bank of work-study, it wasn’t enough to keep me down on the farm.

So, I got a job at a puppet company. And while it might seem like an odd place to bloom, okay, bloom is a strong word for what actually happened, it was at this job I discovered my love of technology. I still remember the moment when I learned to send messages to users through the Novell network (this was back in the days of Windows 3.1 – actually, it was in the days of windows 98, but the people at this company weren’t rushing into upgrading) and brought our financial guy screaming out of his back office because he had no idea what had just happened to his computer. From there, I took apart computers and put cards in them, and then I discovered HTML.

Needless to say, I never looked back.

Since then, I’ve been very lucky to have jobs that let me do what I do best – learn and communicate. And since then, I’ve learned about php, css, javascript, FCP, shooting video, color correction, what the inside of a recording studio looks like and copywriting.

Story Makers is a podcast that features in-depth conversations with accomplished writers, filmmakers and industry experts about story craft, technique, habit and survival--everything you need to know to stay inspired, connect to your creativity, find others’ wonderful stories and your own success.

The hosts:

Elizabeth Stark is a published, agented novelist and distributed filmmaker who teaches and mentors writers at BookWritingWorld.com.

Angie Powers is a distributed filmmaker and published short story writer with an MFA in creative writing and a certificate in screenwriting from UCLA who teaches story structure at BookWritingWorld.com.

We had such a rich and helpful conversation with the multitalented Janis Cooke Newman, author of memoir and novels, editor of the newly launched Technically Literate column of fictional short stories on CNET, and leader of LitCamp. We talked about the isolation of writing and ways to undercut that. We delved into the great origin stories of her books--where to find inspiration and what makes an idea a good one. We delved into craft, from the necessity of writing dialogue and the scenes in memoir to the differences between plotting a memoir and a novel to the way a character who really want something provides an unbeatable engine for your book. We talked about how she curates and edits the contributors to Technically Literate, and the intersection of technology and the literature in the bay area and Silicon Valley/San Francisco. Other topics include: the art and struggle of the letting go of pages that are no longer necessary to the work, the experience of being edited, letting your readers worry about your characters for longer to create tension and suspense and to raise the stakes, the need for clear objectives for your characters with measurable results, how to interweave multiple points of view in a book, the benefits of narrative distance, of the narrator having some perspective on the events being described, and more. So much inspiration!

Links:

A Master Plan For Rescue

 Lit Camp 

Lit Quake

Squaw Valley Writers Conference

Alexander Chee

Michelle Richmond

Janis Cooke Newman

Twitter: @Janice Newman

Lit camp

Technically Literate

Story Makers is a podcast that features in-depth conversations with accomplished writers, filmmakers and industry experts about story craft, technique, habit and survival--everything you need to know to stay inspired, connect to your creativity, find others’ wonderful stories and your own success.

The hosts:

Elizabeth Stark is a published, agented novelist and distributed filmmaker who teaches and mentors writers at BookWritingWorld.com.

Angie Powers is a distributed filmmaker and published short story writer with an MFA in creative writing and a certificate in screenwriting from UCLA who teaches story structure at BookWritingWorld.com.

We had a far-ranging conversation with the multi-talented author of the trilogy The Wolf Chronicles, professional developmental and acquisitions editor and now, first-time screenplay writer Dorothy Hearst. She shared how her ideas and inspirations arrive and develop, how science can thicken a plot, negative self-talk (the downfall of many writers), and so much more. From human-animal-plant co-evolution to character building to revision, myth and symbol, and the shape of story, we delved and discussed concerns of the writer. Then we turned to Dorothy’s expertise as an editor and crafter of compelling jacket copy and talked about the art of proposals and platforms and what the editor can tell us about how to succeed. She gives us her take-aways from being a hands-on editor of books already agented or purchased by publishers, as well as tips for writing a proposal that will sell--and tells us why even the best book can’t be purchased by every editor. And did I mention we cover a brief history of storytelling technologies, and where to find inspiration for audacity and fearless writing?

LINKS:

The International Wolf Conference

Avatar

A River Runs Through It 

A Bit of Fry and Laurie

http://DorothyHearst.com

Dorothy Hearst is the author of the Wolf Chronicles novels: Promise of the Wolves, Secrets of the Wolves, and Spirit of the Wolves, which tell the story how the wolf became the dog from the wolf’s perspective.  Narrated by Kaala, a young wolf living 14,000 years ago the books are based on the theory of wolf-human coevolution and explore our long relationship with wolves nad the wildness the represent.  Dorothy is an acquiring editor at Sounds True, a mission-driven publisher of titles that inspire, support, and serve personal transformation, spiritual awakening, and their expression in the world. She is a professional proposal writer and freelance developmental editor. Previously she was a Senior Editor at Jossey-Bass/Wiley.

Story Makers is a podcast that features in-depth conversations with accomplished writers, filmmakers and industry experts about story craft, technique, habit and survival--everything you need to know to stay inspired, connect to your creativity, find others’ wonderful stories and your own success.

The hosts:

Elizabeth Stark is a published, agented novelist and distributed filmmaker who teaches and mentors writers at BookWritingWorld.com.

Angie Powers is a distributed filmmaker and published short story writer with an MFA in creative writing and a certificate in screenwriting from UCLA who teaches story structure at BookWritingWorld.com.

Problems with sound? Extras don’t show up? In this far-ranging conversation with filmmaker Juan Davis,  a writer/ director with experience in sound, editing and just about every other area of film, we learn just how projects morph and problems can shape a stronger film in the end. From giving voice to the voiceless and showing a film about terrorism in troubled times to the art of transitions, arc and ambiguity, this conversation will inspire story makers of all stripes.

Juan is the writer/ director of a documentary, horror shorts, and a powerful new short film about a young middle eastern boy who witnesses war and is forever changed. He’s also just finished a feature script. We get the low down on the differences between documentary and narrative, and on Juan’s drafting and revision techniques, including reading the draft out loud to yourself, acting it out, the importance of taking notes as you go, and the depth of research he does. (You won’t want to miss the hilarious story of how Juan came to make a documentary.) Short film v. long? Juan talks about differences in set-up, hitting key points as fast as possible, starting with the most important part of the story right away, and getting your point across in a short time. We discuss the dearth of African-American horror filmmakers and why he's drawn to the genre and how he’s doing something different with horror, including reversing character expectations. We also speculate about the reasons behind the reemergence of exposition in written narrative, and the practice of stealing shots from admired films.

Links:

Juan-Davis.com

Twitter: @the1juandavis

Facebook: director.juan.davis

Story Logic and the Craft of Fiction

Laurie Broadnaux

Thaddeus Dickens

Thaddeus Dickens Jr.

Steven King

The Adventures of Tintin

Cinema Paradiso

Juan Davis was born and raised in South Boston, VA.  He is a veteran of the United States Air Force.   He is a graduate of Academy of Art University with a MFA in motion pictures and television. He also holds a BS from East Carolina University where his concentration was in media production.  He started his career as a video editor, editing for a long list of independent companies.     He currently resides in northern California and is an award winning filmmaker.  Some of his films include, short film "Lou's Prey"  nominated for best cinematography in Academy of Art University’s prestigious Annual Epidemic Film Festival.  It was also an official selection to the Hollywood Black Film Festival, acknowledged as the Black Sundance, the St Louis Black Film Festival and the Oakland International Film Festival.  His documentary film “The Peacemakers” was the recipient of the best documentary award at the Equality International Film Festival,the Audience Choice Award at the I Hella Love Shorts Film Festival in Oakland, CA and it was nominated for best documentary at the Academy of Art University Media Awards. His most recent film "Rebel Child" has been officially selected to 11 film festivals and has been the recipient of two awards and 5 award nominations. He has also collaborated with a host of other filmmakers taking on various roles on different productions in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Story Makers is a podcast that features in-depth conversations with accomplished writers, filmmakers and industry experts about story craft, technique, habit and survival--everything you need to know to stay inspired, connect to your creativity, find others’ wonderful stories and your own success.

The hosts:

Elizabeth Stark is a published, agented novelist and distributed filmmaker who teaches and mentors writers at BookWritingWorld.com.

Angie Powers is a distributed filmmaker and published short story writer with an MFA in creative writing and a certificate in screenwriting from UCLA who teaches story structure at BookWritingWorld.com.

This was such a helpful and inspiring conversation with new literary agent Jennifer Soloway, who went to grad school with Angie and who shares her journey to becoming an agent, how she fell in love with the work, her process for selecting clients, how to pitch your work, what she looks for, how she edits, and so much more. This is a must-listen show for anyone looking for an agent and also for anyone writing children’s through YA literature (though lots of what she talked about applies to all stories). She tells you how to grab the attention of a reader and goes step by step through the query process--from your end and from hers. We talk about why you can’t chase the trends but must write the story you’re compelled to write, but we also look at what she’d love to see in her inbox and opportunities for YA. We dig into the differences between the various age levels of books, from the writer’s perspective, in terms of point of view, length, levels of violence and romance and so on. Plus creativity and craft tips, including: finding and identifying your inner youthful mindset, and what builds voice and how voice makes us love a character. Jennifer also talks about how to approach every negative as a positive in editorial work--what she calls the magic of revision. She’s a dynamite, uplifting guide to the business side of books.

Links

Memento Mori

The Catcher in the Rye

Planet Tad

Wonder

Make It Stick

Andrea Brown Literary Agency

Big Sur Writing Workshops

SF Writers Conference

Ethel Rohan

SCBWI

Elizabeth George

Great post about length

Surrogates with Bruce Willis

So Much Synth by Brenda Shaughnessy

JENNIFER MARCH SOLOWAY is an assistant agent, working closely with Executive Agent Laura Rennert. She enjoys all genres and categories, such as laugh-out-loud picture books and middle-grade adventures, but her sweet spot is young adult.

Jennifer is a suspense junkie. She adores action-packed thrillers and mysteries, full of unexpected twists. Throw in a dash of romance, and she’s hooked! She’s a sucker for conspiracy plots where anyone might be a double agent, even the kid next door. She is a huge fan of psychological horror that blurs the lines between the real and the imagined. But as much as she loves a good thriller, she finds her favorite novels are literary stories about ordinary teens, especially those focused on family, relationships, sexuality, mental illness, or addiction. In such stories, she is particularly drawn to a close, confiding first-person narrative.

Prior to joining ABLA, Jennifer worked in marketing and public relations in a variety of industries, including financial services, health care, and toys. She has an MFA in English and Creative Writing from Mills College, and was a fellow at the San Francisco Writer’s Grotto in 2012. She lives in San Francisco with her husband, their two sons, and an English bulldog.

• Twitter

Story Makers is a podcast that features in-depth conversations with accomplished writers, filmmakers and industry experts about story craft, technique, habit and survival--everything you need to know to stay inspired, connect to your creativity, find others’ wonderful stories and your own success.

The hosts:

Elizabeth Stark is a published, agented novelist and distributed filmmaker who teaches and mentors writers at BookWritingWorld.com.

Angie Powers is a distributed filmmaker and published short story writer with an MFA in creative writing and a certificate in screenwriting from UCLA who teaches story structure at BookWritingWorld.com.